


Young Love

by TheJackdaw



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Confident Cullen Rutherford, Cute, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, One Shot, Teasing, mild dirty talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-22 17:25:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13768950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheJackdaw/pseuds/TheJackdaw
Summary: Cullen notices that Evelyn likes him and he intends to tease her as much as he can.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Cullen is v confident, and v sexy

Cullen was waiting on news about their lost men in his office, his anxiety causing him to pace back and forth across the room. Occasionally he would stop to fiddle with something on his desk or his bookshelf in an attempt to distract himself from the gnawing feeling in his stomach. He was still relatively new to being a commander and he had never been in this position before; waiting and wondering whether or not your inexperience in leadership had gotten people killed. Of course, he knew he couldn't blame himself for an archdemon attack as horde after horde of darkspawn descended upon Haven, but he couldn't help but think he could have done something more to save those caught in the crossfire of their war.

His head shot up at the sound of the door opening and saw the Herald's tall and slender figure in the door frame. She was looking down at what looked like a report in her hand, and he felt his heart clench as his worry intensified. He paced over quickly with a barely noticeable bow to his superior before taking it from her and scanning over it as fast as he could.

"Hello to you too, Commander." She chuckled, "You know you could have asked."

Cullen looked up at her halfway through reading and sighed with a smile, "Oh, yes. I'm dreadfully sorry, Inquisitor."

"They're fine, you know." She comforted him, rubbing his shoulder through the thin linen shirt that he wore, as it was late enough to justify him not having to wear his armor.

"Really?!" His face lit up with excitement, "Where did you find them?"

"We sent out scouts on horses to comb through the Frostbacks. You've trained these men well, Cullen; they had managed to set up a camp and find a few animals for meat and pelts to keep them warm and fed. Good instincts, those ones."

Cullen beamed with pride at her kind words and felt his shoulders relax as his anxiety left him.

"They're all home, some more frostbitten than others and some more shaken by the attack, but as far as I could tell from what I saw it was nothing a hot meal and a drink of ale couldn't fix." She laughed.

Cullen chuckled too, placing the report on the surface of his desk and leaning back onto it with his arms crossed. Suddenly, Evelyn felt awkward, just standing in the middle of his office for no discernable reason. It also wasn't often that she saw the commander in such a state of undress. It felt as though it was more intimate a sight than she was entitled to.

"Well, that was all I came to tell you. I'll be off now." She said shortly turning to leave.

"What was it like?" Cullen suddenly asked her, surprising her with such a direct question that she turned around with a frown.

"What?" She cocked her head to one side and crossed her arms.

"What is it like being thrown into such a position of power and then, not three weeks into it, having your home attacked by a darkspawn magister and burned down by an archdemon?"

"What kind of a question is that?" She almost laughed at him, but in trying to repress it, it came out as a scoff.

"Sorry, it was meant to be more sincere than it sounded." He laughed nervously, "I'm just wondering how you're holding up."

Evelyn took a second to think, to consider her situation and everything that had happened to her recently. It was certainly not where she saw herself a few months ago when she had been living with a wealthy family in Ostwick. She had imagined that since she was turning 21 soon that her father was going to try to get her married to another rich family so that she might produce more heirs to carry on her legacy. She laughed quietly and Cullen raised an eyebrow.

"What's funny?" He asked."

"I don't know which I'd prefer," She grinned, "bare-knuckle brawling with an archdemon or marrying some smelly rich man that my father had picked out for me."

Cullen smiled and walked over to her, standing only a few feet in front of her.

"Just as long as you're okay." He rubbed her arm, looking into her eyes so intensely she felt her legs shake a little bit.

Evelyn couldn’t deny her attraction for Cullen, he was a handsome man with a kind, strong heart after all. But what was new to her was him paying her this much intimate attention. Of course, she was used to him checking up on her every now and then, just as Josephine and Leliana did. But the way he was looking at her, the way he comforted her, it was more akin to what you’d expect from a partner than a co-worker.

“Yes, thank you.” She nodded curtly, “I’m going to return to my bedchambers, I think.”

“Of course, Inquisitor.” Cullen bowed respectfully and went to open the door for her.

She walked past in and out of his office with her gaze fixed on the ground, nervously tucking hair behind her ear as she shuffled out.

“I’m here if you need anything!” He called out to her before shutting the door, listening to her pace quicken after he did so.

Cullen did enjoy teasing her. He knew the exact effect he was having on her; it was obvious after he noticed the nervous look she gives him whenever he got to close but made no effort to move away from him. That and Dorian was incredibly informative when he knew there was a good bit of drama to be initiated. Cullen had purposely worn very little in comparison to his normal attire and had deliberately gotten close to her to see how she would react. Of course, it was easy to mask his true intentions when he was truly worried about the fate of his men; she wouldn’t suspect a thing from him.

He smirked evilly at the thought of how he’d been teasing her for the past couple of months. He did things like stand a little _too_ close to her by the war table, lower his voice _just_ enough that whatever he was saying would sound suggestive and, as he had just been doing, behave towards her in such a way that could be considered intimate or friendly depending on how you see it. He was sure she was doubting herself as to what he was planning, thinking that it was just her imagination. Tomorrow she promised she would watch him run drills with the new recruits, and he had the perfect idea to get her flustered.

\--

It was early morning, and the sun was just peaking over the tops of the mountains surrounding Skyhold. Evelyn walked down the steps into the courtyard from the main hall and immediately saw the training grounds filled with new recruits. Cullen was stood in the center, swinging a training sword in different movements towards one of the wooden dummies. She walked towards them but tried to walk casually by as if she wasn’t watching them with more interest than she should have. She was leaning against the fence with her hips slanted to one side, trying to appear nonchalant despite her tense posture which Cullen clearly saw. He turned his back to her to hide his grin as he thought of the perfect thing to tease her.

He was wearing just a simple shirt and pair of trousers, much less than the normal armor that he typically wore. His soldiers must have noticed, but of course, wouldn’t say anything for fear they were punished for speaking out of turn. They all knew their commander had a mean side when it came to punishments. He rolled his shoulders and his head as if to relax the muscles in his back, but since he was wearing little in the way of armor, the Inquisitor could see how each muscle in his back moved in response. He shot her a grin over his shoulder, and turned back to address his men.

“So, you need to remember to maintain the power behind your strokes. You can’t expect to keep the upper hand in battle unless you are _dominant_.”

Evelyn’s thighs tensed, and she subconsciously rubbed her legs together and she felt a pain in her chest, and a soft whimpering noise came from her lips. She had said she wanted to watch his training that morning under the guise of making sure her men were getting along well. Both she and Cullen knew, however, that she was there for a wholly more personal desire.

It was getting hotter as the day went on, and Evelyn retreated backward a little to stand nearer the wall, where shade was cast, and she could stand without getting too hot. Additionally, Cullen couldn’t see whether her face was red because of the heat or because he was making her blush. Of course, Cullen knew he had to adapt to this certain situation, should he want to drive her mad as he wanted to. He taught them a few more new techniques before he told his men to go and take a break for a few hours, to let the hottest part of the day pass before their heavy training continued.

As the training grounds were cleared, Cullen made his way over to Evelyn who thus far hadn’t noticed he was coming over since Iron Bull had walked past and drawn her into a conversation. He waited patiently behind Bull, taking the opportunity to muss his hair a little to make him look more disheveled, and listened to what they were talking about. He caught the odd word of Bull telling her to just “go for it and see what happens. He’s not quite what you think.” Bull turned around to look at Cullen and gave him a knowing wink and nodded towards Evelyn before walking away, no doubt to find somewhere incognito to watch the scene about to evolve.

Cullen resisted the urge to grin when he saw how worried Evelyn looked. She knew that she was in for a world of sexual torture, thinking that he wasn’t deliberately trying to turn her on. He stood close to her, murmuring something about how he was hot and needed to stand in the shade. She could see the rivulets of sweat that ran down his head, from his hairline and down the sides of his face.

“What do you think, Inquisitor? Not too bad, are they? Most of them haven’t even held a sword before a week ago.” He told her, wiping some sweat from his head.

“Well, um…” Evelyn stammered, “I’m sure in your care they’ll do absolutely fine.”

“I’m glad to see you have faith in me.” Cullen smiled, “Did you ever want to learn to fight with a sword and shield?”

Evelyn found herself staring intensely at the ground as he leaned against the wall with one hand, his arm extending next to her head which effectively trapped her next to him.

“I bet you’d be lethal with a sword, wouldn’t you?” He advanced on her a little, making her press her back against the wall a little more as she backed up.

He picked up one of her hands with his free one, that up until now had been resting on his hip.

“You have strong, but delicate hands. You could truly bring a man to his knees with that kind of skill.”

The hidden meaning of his words was not lost on her, and he was happy to see she was understanding what he was hinting towards. She finally looked up at him, but still, maintain her submissive stance by looking at up at him through her eyelashes. He loved how quiet she was around him since he had seen her lead armies, fight darkspawn and even manipulate many an Orlesian at the Winter Palace. Yet, he could bring her to silence just by looking at her right.

“Are you alright, Evelyn? You’re awfully quiet.”

She suddenly perked up and blinked a few times as though she was coming out of some sort of trance.

“Yes! I’m sorry Cullen, I completely zoned out. But I am very proud of what you’ve done for our forces. You’re doing brilliantly with them.”

He smiled and nodded to her in respect but knew he had been successful in trying to frustrate her since at this point it was abundantly clear that she was making it up as she was going along in an attempt to feign control. She looked past him and saw Iron Bull watching on with his arms crossed, generally looking as though he was waiting for something to happen. He nodded to her in encouragement, although it wasn’t exactly clear what he wanted her to do.

“I still remember what my training was like, back when I was much younger of course. I wasn’t nearly so quick as I am now. I got hit a lot, I wasn’t very good at moving out of the way from swords coming towards me.”

Cullen lifted his shirt without warning, and once again Evelyn felt her face get hot and her chest tighten as she was simultaneously panicked and excited. He pointed out a few small scars and scuffs that littered his torso, running over his stomach muscles and a few that ran around his sides as though he had tried to dodge someone, and they had just caught him.

“I learned to move the hard way, I suppose. Although I don’t imagine you have many scars, being an archer. You more often strike in silence from the shadows, don’t you?”

Evelyn nodded, stayed focused where he was gesturing to on his body. Something about how much battle experience he had made her even more attracted to him, although she was certain at this point anything he did would make him more attractive. He dropped his shirt and placed his hand on the other side of her head and her eyes snapped back up to his

“Well, anyway, I’ll see you later at the War Table? We have a meeting today after dinner I believe?”

“I look forward to it.” Cullen nodded but didn’t move so that she was still trapped between him and the wall.

She tilted her head up to look at him, seeing how intensely he was looking at her. His eyes raced across her face, flicked between her eyes then down to her mouth. He moved towards her again, and she tilted her head back further and closed her eyes as he bent down to kiss her, bringing one of his hands down to grab her hip, pulling her towards him. Iron Bull reached his hand out towards Krem beside him, who begrudgingly handed him a few silver coins. Evelyn reached up and held the back of his neck, moving closer to him and letting him hold her close.

Cullen stepped away from her and bit his lip, chuckling darkly. He wiped his bottom lip with his thumb before pushing his hair back from his face, giving her a confident look.

“See you later.”

Cullen turned and walked away, climbing the stairs to the main hall two steps at a time. She heard Iron Bull’s bellowing laugh and looked over to see him whooping and clapping for her. She didn’t know what to do in response, so just started giggling and held her face in her hands as emotions overwhelmed her. She fell back against the wall and slide down to sit on the ground, still grinning and giggling like a teenager.

\--


	2. Dominance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cullen continues to torment Evelyn for her attraction to him, but her companions try to help her resist his advances.

Evelyn tried as hard as she could to avoid Cullen’s gaze in the following days. She would be sat in the great hall eating with her companions and would suddenly flush entirely red in the face and stare intensely down at the table when he walked past. Of course, it didn’t take long for Cullen to notice, since he had been watching her even more so than usual to see if he had had the desired effect. He grinned when he saw that he had. Evelyn was looking down waiting for him to pass when she heard someone chuckle.

“Please refrain from your adolescent giggling, Evelyn.” Dorian teased, “You’re reminding me of my younger years.”

Evelyn looked up at him and then dropped her head in shame, sighing in defeat.

“I have a war table meeting with him later too.” She whined, picking at what was left of her food.

“Come on, Boss! What’s so hard about just walking right on in there, grabbing him by that weird, fluffy crap on his shoulders and just finally getting what you want outta him?” Bull joked, “Maker knows he needs the release just as much as you do.”

“I could swear sometimes he does things just to get to me.” Evelyn huffed.

“Maybe you should play just as hard back at him.” Varric suggested, “I doubt he would object to a little challenge.”

Evelyn sat quietly for a few moments, her eyes flicking around as she contemplated what he had said. She did think it was a good excuse to get close to him, and perhaps it could help bring him down a peg or two; show him he wasn’t in complete control of her. She turned to Varric with a grin.

“So, you write all these dirty novels, what would you say is the best thing to try first?” She asked although the tone of her voice conveyed that she was not as confident as she was trying to appear.

“For starters, I would try and not hide away from him when he speaks to you.” He laughed, “Coz then, he knows he’s already won. You have to show that you’re ready to meet him and play his game, otherwise, he’s going to torment you forever.”

He dropped his voice so that only Dorian beside him could hear,

“Or until he gets you in his bed.”

Dorian chuckled and rolled his eyes but, being himself, he was, of course, excited for any development between the two of them. Evelyn continued to sit silently, unaware of Varric’s comment and stared at the door Cullen had walked into as she envisaged how this next war table meeting was going to go. In an ideal scenario, Cullen would see that she was not to be messed with; she was _his_ superior after all.  But, she knew how it would go: her ending up blushing and going completely silent as he exuded his psychological dominance over her.

-

She walked into the war council room to see that she was the first there, which confused her since she was sure she had seen Cullen walk this way earlier. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a shuffle behind her and saw Cullen was in fact there, but he had been stood silently beside the door with one foot stood against the wall. He looked at her as though his behavior was perfectly normal, and walked over to her beside the table, pretending to be looking over the pieces on the table to indicate troop locations and possible missions. However, he was so close to her that whilst she was still facing away from the table, she ended up backed up against it with him slightly to the side of her and his head beside her shoulder. This was characteristic of his flirting technique, she recognized, as he would do things that would make her doubt whether he was doing it deliberately or whether she was imagining it all. It would typically mean she wouldn’t say anything for fear of being wrong and embarrassing herself. But not today.

“Commander, I do hope you realize that there is whole other side to this table, you needn’t be so close.”

“I know.” He said without moving his head as if he was focused on something else entirely.

“What is so important that you must stand so close?”

“I’m looking at the work to be done around lake Calenhad. Did I ever tell you that I think it looks like a bunny?”

Evelyn was finding it difficult to maintain her confident tone with him since he was being so dismissive of her attempt at regaining control. Entirely deliberately, she was sure. She only had one more idea to get him to admit what he was doing.

“Cullen?” The use of his actual name seemed to catch his attention as his eyes flicked over towards her and tilted his head to look at her.

“Yes, my lady?” He gave her a look as if he knew what she was about to try.

“Are you trying to flirt with me?” She felt her stomach curl in anxiety as she watched him, and it worried her even more than his signature grin didn’t plaster his face immediately.

He stood up straight and crossed his arms, sighing as he looked down at her.

“I fail to see what is flirtatious about collecting ore from the Hinterlands, my lady.” He joked.

She spluttered and stammered as she tried to recover what had been frankly an outrageously bold move on her part, and Cullen decided to relieve her of the stress.

“But if you are referring to how I find it arousing to watch you blush and turn silent whenever I am slightly dominant towards you, then yes, I am very much flirting with you.”

She felt her cheeks turn an even darker shade of red, as her cheeks heated up and she felt a pinching pain in her lower gut. She needed to step back at him, and quick, before he saw that he had gotten to her, but it was already too late.

“That’s rather bold of you, Commander.”

He could tell he had won since she reverted to using his title, a show of submission in his eyes. But of course, what’s the fun in stopping when you can carry on?

“I suppose so, like how I grabbed you and kissed you in the courtyard a few days ago?” Cullen moved in front of her and positioned his face, so she could feel the heat radiating from him on her face, “you liked how I pulled you closer and held you there, didn’t you?”

Evelyn’s heart raced, and she felt her pulse hammering in her neck as her eyes flit back and forth between his and watched as he got closer. She found herself giving up with her tough act and nodding along to what he was saying.

“It’s easier to just give in, isn’t it?” He asked rhetorically as he noticed her change in behavior as if reading her thoughts.

“Much easier to just let me do what I want,” He moved closer, “take control.”

He heard footsteps in the corridor and the idle chatter of Josephine and Leliana as they approached for the meeting but didn’t think that Evelyn had noticed she hadn’t tried to scramble away. He looked to the side to focus more on the sound to try and tell how close they were.

Her eyes were half closed by the time he had looked back, and he grinned proudly. He had her completely. She was thinking about what had happened between them before, similar emotions running through her now as all she wanted to do was relive that moment. It was the freest she had felt in a while, which is rather ironic since it was also the most controlled she had been since her teenage years and experimentation. Wordlessly he stepped to the side to his original position, although slightly further away so they weren’t touching; he appeared completely innocent to the other women when they came in.

Josephine stopped her sentence halfway through as she saw Evelyn’s face, bright red and dazed and worried for what was wrong. Having soon after noticed that Cullen was standing with her, and not being oblivious to the tension between the two of them, was able to work out what had happened. Leliana was equally quick to catch on, and they both moved to their assigned positions at the table with an unspoken agreement to talk about this later.

The Herald herself had just managed to refocus her attention after she noticed they had come in, hoping they hadn’t seen what a state she was in. But she knew how good they were at their jobs and how good they were at recognizing the relationship and chemistry between two individuals. It was a vital skill when playing “the game” after all. She tried to find her thinking as fast as she could, trying to play it off as if it was just deep thought rather than sexual frustration, but knew she would never get away with it.

Cullen walked around the other side of the table and leaned forwards onto his hands, looking her directly in the eye as he did.

“To work then?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter this time, just suddenly felt the inspo and had a little idea of what he could possibly do next. All these thoughts coming from me in the shower. 
> 
> I think I should be worried I think of Cullen fanfic in the shower xD
> 
> Thanks everyone who left comments on the last chapter! You guys are the main reason I wrote another one, so enjoy!


End file.
